Shows
The Next PageFrancesco Pisano on Knowledge to LeadFrancesco Pisano, Director of the UN Library & Archives Geneva, reflects on the transformative power of knowledge, and the role of the Library & Archives in democratizing access to knowledge. He discusses projects like the Total Digital Access to the League of Nations, the balance between humans and machines, and how knowledge-led leadership can strengthen multilateral cooperation.
As he prepares to step down from his 32-year UN career, Francesco Pisano emphasizes optimism, hope, and the responsibility of international civil servants to persist in doing the hard work of building wiser decisions for the future.
Francesco says, "There...
2025-09-0535 min
The Building PodcastMark talks to Peter WoodersSend a Text - Feedback WelcomeThe UK plans to have over 50GW of solar capacity installed by 2030. The global solar Council is projecting 8TW of solar capacity in the same timeframe. The UK accounts for just over half of one percent, yet we are part of a holistic worldwide industry with global supply chains, prone to geopolitical risks.Peter Wooders founded Geneva Platform to examine and promote solutions to international supply chain risks. Geneva Platform works for a wide variety of Governments and other organisations to understand supply chain risks. Peter is their expert on r...
2025-08-0158 min
Graduate Institute What Matters TodayAn Israeli/Palestinian Federation: An Alternative Approach to PeaceIn this episode, we examine a report entitled An Israeli/Palestinian Federation: An Alternative Approach to Peace
This report challenges the viability of the two-state solution for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposes a federal approach as a new path forward. You can find a link to the report in the episode description.
In this episode we'll discuss the resistance to this idea and uncover the primary barriers to its acceptance among both Israelis and Palestinians. Our conversation will also address how this federation could tackle the contentious issues of Israeli settlements and the right of return for Palestinian refugees...
2025-01-2733 min
Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues | Current AffairsCan a Federation Heal the Divide between Israel and Palestine with Nigel RobertsRetired World Bank Director Nigel Roberts tackles the intractable Israel-Palestine conflict. He dissects the shortcomings of the two-state solution and champions a novel approach: a federation acknowledging both identities. Roberts delves into the historical roots and the radicalisation fuelling the conflict. He argues for a new framework built on a constitutional process, acknowledging the trauma on both sides.
The discussion explores the challenges of public acceptance amidst deep mistrust. Roberts examines the influence of social media and urges international engagement to foster dialogue. Ultimately, he offers a glimmer of hope with the federation model, calling for citizen action...
2024-12-071h 08
The Next PagePaying for Multilateralism: the financing of IOs in GenevaLivio Silva-Müller and Remo Gassman speak with us about their findings on the financing of international organizations in Geneva, published in a report by the Geneva Graduate Institute. Their illuminating report covers 16 organizations and spans two decades, from 2000 to 2020, providing a comprehensive analysis of financial contributions to Geneva-based international organizations.
Livio and Remo put into perspective the total of 23.6 billion USD contributed in 2020 to the 16 organizations in the study and leave us with five take-away points from their research.
Join us as we explore the evolving landscape of multilateral funding, the role of major d...
2024-09-2734 min
The Next PageWhy history matters in today's world – with Davide Rodogno and Carolyn BiltoftIn this rich conversation with Professors Davide Rodogno and Carloyn Biltoft, we delve into a world of meaning making and examine the depth and breadth that history offers for policymaking.
Davide Rodogno is professor of International History and Politics and the Head of the Interdisciplinary Master Programme at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. He specializes in researching international organizations and philanthropic foundations, and transnational networks and movements since the 19th century.
Carolyn Biltoft is associate professor of international history and politics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies...
2024-04-2649 min
Graduate Institute What Matters TodayL'éthique au coeur de l'IADans cet épisode de "What Matters Today", Jérôme Duberry, directeur exécutif du Tech Hub, interviewe la professeure Lyse Langlois, directrice générale de l'Observatoire international sur les impacts sociétaux de l'intelligence artificielle et du numérique (OBVIA) à l'Université de Laval. Ils explorent le thème de l'éthique au cœur de l'intelligence artificielle, basé sur le dernier rapport publié par l'OBVIA. Lyse Langlois souligne l'importance de l'éthique appliquée et de la responsabilité collective dans un contexte d'évolution rapide de l'intelligence artificielle, mettant en garde contre une approche de checklist qui pourrait détourner l'éthique...
2024-01-2526 min
The Next PageFutures of multilateralismFutures of multilateralism – an applied research project on the challenge of transforming the global order
In this episode, three young researchers from the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Simfora Bangasimbo, Karim Achy, Sohini Chakrabarti talk about their applied research project on Futures of Multilateralism. The UN Office at Geneva and the Graduate Institute collaborate in several knowledge and research domains and this research project on futures of multilateralism was submitted by the Library & Archives and The Fab, the Institute’s innovation lab.
Francesco Pisano, Director of the Library & Archives, discusses with the graduate students as th...
2023-11-1038 min
The Next PageNight on Earth - a bookcast with Davide RodognoIn this episode, Davide Rodogno introduces his book Night on Earth, an account of international humanitarian programmes in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and the Near East in the interwar period from 1918 to 1930.
Professor Rodogno explains how concepts of international 'relief' and 'development' were deeply connected long before the existence of the United Nations. Through the conversation, we explore the long history of humanitarians operating in the region devastated by war and famine and in which state sovereignty was deficient and hear about the colonial motivations and ideologies that influenced the activities of the various secular...
2023-07-2147 min
Graduate Institute What Matters TodayScience DiplomacyNext week is Science Diplomacy Week here in Geneva and therefore this week’s episode of What Matters Today will focus on the topic of Science Diplomacy. We will highlight what Science Diplomacy is and discuss the problems it’s trying to solve. We will also talk about how the war in Ukraine is impacting Science Diplomacy.
Our guest today is Niccolo Iorno. Niccolo is a biotechnologist with an MBA from the Collège des Ingénieurs, a “grande École” based in Paris.
He currently works at the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, where he deals with various aspects related to...
2023-05-0416 min
In Conversation: An OUP PodcastEmily Klancher Merchant, "Building the Population Bomb" (Oxford UP, 2021)Across the twentieth century, Earth's human population increased undeniably quickly, rising from 1.6 billion people in 1900 to 6.1 billion in 2000. As population grew, it also began to take the blame for some of the world's most serious problems, from global poverty to environmental degradation, and became an object of intervention for governments and nongovernmental organizations. But the links between population, poverty, and pollution were neither obvious nor uncontested.Building the Population Bomb (Oxford University Press, 2021) by Emily Klancher Merchant tells the story of the twentieth-century population crisis by examining how scientists, philanthropists, and governments across the globe came to define the rise of...
2022-04-2853 min
New Books in EconomicsEmily Klancher Merchant, "Building the Population Bomb" (Oxford UP, 2021)Across the twentieth century, Earth's human population increased undeniably quickly, rising from 1.6 billion people in 1900 to 6.1 billion in 2000. As population grew, it also began to take the blame for some of the world's most serious problems, from global poverty to environmental degradation, and became an object of intervention for governments and nongovernmental organizations. But the links between population, poverty, and pollution were neither obvious nor uncontested.Building the Population Bomb (Oxford University Press, 2021) by Emily Klancher Merchant tells the story of the twentieth-century population crisis by examining how scientists, philanthropists, and governments across the globe came to def...
2022-04-2853 min
New Books in Women's HistoryEmily Klancher Merchant, "Building the Population Bomb" (Oxford UP, 2021)Across the twentieth century, Earth's human population increased undeniably quickly, rising from 1.6 billion people in 1900 to 6.1 billion in 2000. As population grew, it also began to take the blame for some of the world's most serious problems, from global poverty to environmental degradation, and became an object of intervention for governments and nongovernmental organizations. But the links between population, poverty, and pollution were neither obvious nor uncontested.Building the Population Bomb (Oxford University Press, 2021) by Emily Klancher Merchant tells the story of the twentieth-century population crisis by examining how scientists, philanthropists, and governments across the globe came to def...
2022-04-2853 min
New Books in World AffairsEmily Klancher Merchant, "Building the Population Bomb" (Oxford UP, 2021)Across the twentieth century, Earth's human population increased undeniably quickly, rising from 1.6 billion people in 1900 to 6.1 billion in 2000. As population grew, it also began to take the blame for some of the world's most serious problems, from global poverty to environmental degradation, and became an object of intervention for governments and nongovernmental organizations. But the links between population, poverty, and pollution were neither obvious nor uncontested.Building the Population Bomb (Oxford University Press, 2021) by Emily Klancher Merchant tells the story of the twentieth-century population crisis by examining how scientists, philanthropists, and governments across the globe came to define the rise of...
2022-04-2853 min
New Books in the History of ScienceEmily Klancher Merchant, "Building the Population Bomb" (Oxford UP, 2021)Across the twentieth century, Earth's human population increased undeniably quickly, rising from 1.6 billion people in 1900 to 6.1 billion in 2000. As population grew, it also began to take the blame for some of the world's most serious problems, from global poverty to environmental degradation, and became an object of intervention for governments and nongovernmental organizations. But the links between population, poverty, and pollution were neither obvious nor uncontested.Building the Population Bomb (Oxford University Press, 2021) by Emily Klancher Merchant tells the story of the twentieth-century population crisis by examining how scientists, philanthropists, and governments across the globe came to def...
2022-04-2851 min
The Next PageMedia, Truth and Power at the League of Nations with Carolyn BiltoftIn this episode, Professor Carolyn Biltoft considers how you do global intellectual history and the need for analysis, as she talks about her book, A Violent Peace: Media, Truth and Power at the League of Nations (2021, University of Chicago Press).
Looking through the League of Nations, a longed-for project of international peace and cooperation, Biltoft is interested in examining what is this thing called mass media. In her critique of the information system, she looks at how it transforms our relation to power and interacts with our fears, anxieties, and our longing for certainty.
We...
2021-09-1743 min
The Next Page39: Professor Kathryn Lavelle on Multilateralism as "Contrasts in Motion"
In episode 39, we continue our exploration of multilateralism by looking at the challenges of multilateralism and discussing Professor Kathryn Lavelle’s new book on that topic.
Kathryn Lavelle is the Ellen and Dixon Long Professor in World Affairs at the Department of Political Affairs at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where she has worked for the past eighteen years. Professor Lavelle is a permanent member of the New York Council on Foreign Relations and is a global fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in its Global Europe programme. She also se...
2020-12-1136 min
New Books in Catholic StudiesJason Keith Fernandes, "Citizenship in a Caste Polity: Religion, Language and Belonging in Goa" (Orient BlackSwan, 2020)In the mid-1980s, Goa witnessed mass demonstrations, violent protests and political mobilising, following which Konkani was declared the official language of the Goan territory. However, Konkani was recognised only in the Devanagari script, one of two scripts used for the language in Goa, the other being the Roman script. Set against this historical background, Citizenship in a Caste Polity: Religion, Language and Belonging in Goa (Orient BlackSwan, 2020) studies the contestations around the demand that the Roman script also be officially recognised and given equal status.Based on meetings and interviews with individuals involved in this mobilisation, the...
2020-11-2758 min
New Books in South Asian StudiesJason Keith Fernandes, "Citizenship in a Caste Polity: Religion, Language and Belonging in Goa" (Orient BlackSwan, 2020)In the mid-1980s, Goa witnessed mass demonstrations, violent protests and political mobilising, following which Konkani was declared the official language of the Goan territory. However, Konkani was recognised only in the Devanagari script, one of two scripts used for the language in Goa, the other being the Roman script. Set against this historical background, Citizenship in a Caste Polity: Religion, Language and Belonging in Goa (Orient BlackSwan, 2020) studies the contestations around the demand that the Roman script also be officially recognised and given equal status.Based on meetings and interviews with individuals involved in this mobilisation, the...
2020-11-271h 01
New Books in Indian ReligionsJason Keith Fernandes, "Citizenship in a Caste Polity: Religion, Language and Belonging in Goa" (Orient BlackSwan, 2020)In the mid-1980s, Goa witnessed mass demonstrations, violent protests and political mobilising, following which Konkani was declared the official language of the Goan territory. However, Konkani was recognised only in the Devanagari script, one of two scripts used for the language in Goa, the other being the Roman script. Set against this historical background, Citizenship in a Caste Polity: Religion, Language and Belonging in Goa (Orient BlackSwan, 2020) studies the contestations around the demand that the Roman script also be officially recognised and given equal status.Based on meetings and interviews with individuals involved in this mobilisation, the...
2020-11-2758 min
Democracy in Question?American democracy: a Trumpian blip or a deeper malaise?America is split into apparently irreconcilable political tribes and led by a highly divisive President who is upending democratic norms. The country is also being shaken by demonstrations against racial injustice and a severe economic downturn wrought by the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic. Is American democracy having a momentary crisis or is it facing an existential threat? Professor Timothy Snyder (Yale University) joins us to investigate.Further readings:Timothy Snyder’s books The Road to Unfreedom (2018) and Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary (2020)Timothy Snyder’s article on Trump’s ‘Delay the election’ twe...
2020-10-0825 minDemocracy in Question?Introducing Democracy in QuestionLiberal democracies are under unprecedented strain from within and without. Join renowned social anthropologist Shalini Randeria and leading scholars for an exploration of the challenges democracies are facing around the world. Subscribe now!Find out more about our work on Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy and on IWM. If you have any questions or feedback, you can email us at communication@graduateinstitute.ch.This podcast is produced by Richard Miron and Anouk Millet from Earshot Strategies.
2020-09-2402 min
The Next Page27: Jerome Bellion-Jourdan on negotiations for the greater good
This episode delves into the world of negotiation. As we mark 100 years of multilateralism in Geneva and the UN turns 75, what is the role of negotiation in the multilateral context? For this conversation, we’re joined by Jerome Bellion-Jourdan for an online recording. He’s currently a Senior Fellow at the Global Governance Centre at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, and before that he served as the lead EU negotiator on a range of thematic issues such as Business and Human Rights as well as country situations in the UN Human Rights Council for almost 9 years. In this...
2020-07-0334 min
Exchanges: A Cambridge UP PodcastAyesha Siddiqi, "In the Wake of Disaster: Islamists, the State and a Social Contract in Pakistan" (Cambridge UP, 2019)Over the last couple of decades, a number of books written both by the academics and journalists have appeared on many dysfunctions of the Pakistani state, a few of them even predicting why and how and when it is going to collapse. Against this grain, Ayesha Siddiqi’s new book, In the Wake of Disaster Islamists, the State and a Social Contract in Pakistan (Cambridge University Press, 2019) is a forceful meditation on a number of key issues around the social contract, citizenship, and state provisions such as disaster relief and social protection. The book helps understand why, despite its many...
2020-06-2655 min
New Books in GeographyAyesha Siddiqi, "In the Wake of Disaster: Islamists, the State and a Social Contract in Pakistan" (Cambridge UP, 2019)Over the last couple of decades, a number of books written both by the academics and journalists have appeared on many dysfunctions of the Pakistani state, a few of them even predicting why and how and when it is going to collapse. Against this grain, Ayesha Siddiqi’s new book, In the Wake of Disaster Islamists, the State and a Social Contract in Pakistan (Cambridge University Press, 2019) is a forceful meditation on a number of key issues around the social contract, citizenship, and state provisions such as disaster relief and social protection. The book helps understand why, despite its many...
2020-06-2655 min
New Books in Islamic StudiesAyesha Siddiqi, "In the Wake of Disaster: Islamists, the State and a Social Contract in Pakistan" (Cambridge UP, 2019)Over the last couple of decades, a number of books written both by the academics and journalists have appeared on many dysfunctions of the Pakistani state, a few of them even predicting why and how and when it is going to collapse. Against this grain, Ayesha Siddiqi’s new book, In the Wake of Disaster Islamists, the State and a Social Contract in Pakistan (Cambridge University Press, 2019) is a forceful meditation on a number of key issues around the social contract, citizenship, and state provisions such as disaster relief and social protection. The book helps understand why, despite its many...
2020-06-2655 min
Geneva Intl.The Geneva Challenge Begins!The Geneva Challenge is an international contest for graduate students to develop analysis-based proposals on advancing human development in a relevant topic of global concern. Tune in to learn more about this year’s theme, submission requirements and the evaluation criteria of the proposals! For any further queries, reach out to geneva.challenge@graduateinstitute.ch Hosts: Michelle Olguin Fluckiger … Continue reading The Geneva Challenge Begins!
2020-06-0810 min
The Next Page18: Amandeep Gill on Nuclear Security Summits: A History #BookTalkWelcome to the second episode of 2020! In this recording for our Book Talk series, the Director at the Library, Francesco Pisano, speaks with Ambassador Amandeep Gill about his book published in 2019, called Nuclear Security Summits: A History. This book looks at how nuclear security has developed over the period from 1945 to 2006, as well as how it has evolved in practice in more recent years through the Nuclear Security Summits between 2010 and 2016.
Ambassador Gill has a range of experience in this field and in others, having taken part in 3 of the summits. For this conversation he shares what his book is ab...
2020-01-2434 min